New federal regulations ease eligibility for borrowers of Federal Parent PLUS and Federal Grad PLUS loans, backing off from tighter rules that were implemented three years ago. Borrowers with a current 90-day delinquency or accounts that were in collections or charged-off will remain eligible if the total debt is under $2,085 or if the collection activity occurred more than two years ago.

Starbucks announced a new employer-paid tuition assistance plan for its 100,000+ employees. The Starbucks College Achievement Plan provides tuition reimbursement for online Bachelor's degrees through a new partnership with Arizona State University.

Some colleges promote debit cards and bank accounts to their students, or use them for disbursing student financial aid funds, but may not adequately disclose potential conflicts of interest to students and their families.

Student loan debt at graduation continues to increase every year. A new report presents facts and figures concerning average student loan debt for students graduating in 2011-2012, demonstrating that the burden of paying for college continues to shift from the federal and state governments to students and their families.

According to a new report from the National Center for Education Statistics, more than 70 percent of undergraduate students received some form of student financial aid, with 59 percent receiving grants.